Songoftheday 5/8/14 - Let's take a walk together near the ocean shore hand in hand you and I...

Kool & The Gang - "Cherish"
from the album Emergency (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by the pop/funk band from New Jersey, Kool & The Gang, whose 1984 album Emergency had already produced two top-ten singles with "Misled" and "Fresh". They continued their one-word title streak with "Cherish", a full-on pop ballad that was as far from that funk roots as they could get, but rode effortlessly on the ultra-smooth vocals of lead singer James J.T. Taylor...

"Cherish" stopped one notch short of the top of the pop chart in the U.S. in September of 1985, though it ruled both the adult contemporary and R&B radio charts (the former a whopping six weeks). Internationally, the single made the top ten in England (#4), Germany (#5), and the Netherlands (#3). It would shift their audience and sound to a more adult pop style, given the success of this and their other hit "Joanna".

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Here's the band love touring behind the record...

In 1997, Caribbean Dutch rapper Pappa Bear had a top-ten hit across Europe with his same-titled song interpolating the Kool & The Gang composition...

Lastly, here's Kool & The Gang live at the Glastonbury Festival in England in 2011..

Up tomorrow: An obsessed new wave group advises release.